Pregnancy Surprises

1. Sensitive Skin - I've never been a sufferer of super sensitive skin. Now every second morning (like this morning) I wake up with puffy sore red skin somewhere that's been made angry by a pillow or other skin or a bad pH balance in the air. Who knows? Nivea has been indispensable. I've just tried Curel Pregnancy Lotion (thanks Mumma) and that also seems to be smoothing things away. Face moisturizer has become a must for the first time ever, I've banished the bubble bath (after that caused some serious hives) and have shelved the perfume until at least June.

2. Sleepiness - This one was probably the hardest. For the first three-ish months of pregnancy I was ready for a nap by 10am (after getting up at 7am) and could have crawled into bed before supper at 5pm. I was sleeping 8 hours a night during the week and 10-12 hours each night on the weekend and still felt as if I'd just run a marathon (twice) and written a calculus exam. Before this my life didn't stop at 5pm and suddenly I didn't have the energy for any of it. Just the thought of reading was tiring.

Thankfully, things in the second three-ish months have almost returned to normal. I still sometimes steal a quick 10 or 15 minutes on the couch after work and watch what is arguably more than a healthy amount of The Learning Channel but I've picked up the knitting again and actually started TWO books last weekend.

3. Merry as a Cricket (this actually is a thesaurus.com synonym for happiness so is unsoulclogged) - I'm not sure if I should chalk this one up to the physiology of pregnancy or knowing that there will be a sweet little one here with us in no time, but I am over the moon. It's like all those little life things that used to be bothersome no longer exist. Or they do but even they have a slight rose-coloured tint now. Before Frankie Moon was real I used to wonder how pregnancy would agree with me - would I be an unbearable ball of weepiness or a roller coaster of delight and hell fire? Nearly twenty-seven weeks in I'm happy to say that it agrees just fine.

Sure there have been some proments (pregnancy moments) - like when the place we had hoped to buy on Bentick Street sold 45 minutes before we got there and tears were instantaneous - but these have been pretty far and few between. This perfect contentedness and all the laughter that's right there just ready to bubble over make me understand a little more how "Nineteen Kids and Counting" could happen (and that's even before I get to squish tiny cheeks and smother them in kisses).